


And She Was Happy

by akouos



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Dorky Kid, F/M, Love Confessions, Manga Spoilers, five times trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 02:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5895250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akouos/pseuds/akouos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The five times she didn't tell him she loved him and the one time she did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And She Was Happy

Liz Thompson has gotten soft, not that the DWMA is any easier than the streets of Brooklyn. She is still a hard, fine point. A weapon. Dangerous in big flashing neon letters and a smirk in red lipstick and gunmetal eyes. People can tell by the way she walks, the way she holds herself. 

But she likes that part of herself a little better now. She is becoming the person she wants to be. She feels like a better person when she’s with them, with _him_. 

She could have easily run. It’s been four years and she’s had more than enough money put away to take her and Patty away from everything. Maybe someplace warm where they could idle their lives away on sandy beaches, forever tan and happy and fat on coconut milk and sushi. 

But on the evening of Kid’s coronation, he was nervous and fluttery. He handed them two velvet boxes.

“It’s just a title,” he explained, rubbing the back of his neck almost bashfully. “You’re not actually death weapons but Soul and I’s resonance isn’t as strong as ours-”

Patty squealed and nearly lunged over the table to hug him. Liz knew what he had been trying to say. She too had realized their partnership was up in the air once everything became official. She was glad he would have missed them too.

Patty had pulled her into the embrace a second later and she grinned into her sister’s hair with a roll of her eyes.

She had never been more happy than in that moment. A reason to stay. 

They stay, another year and then another and then another. And not just for Kid but for Patty and the home the three of them built together. For all of them, really. 

She watches her friends change. She watches Kid shake the grief off his shoulders and take the world in stride, shape his father’s legacy into something that makes him tall and happy and confident with pride. They all graduate together, Kid himself handing them diplomas. 

Patty comes to Kid six months later and tells him she wants to take classes at the local university. He’s ecstatic for her and insists on accompanying her on a tour of the campus. 

He’s turning a fold-out brochure with a map of it while Liz pops her gum and grins slightly at Patty bouncing beside her, her choppy self-cut hair dyed a light bubblegum pink. The sun is burning hot on the back of her neck.

“Okay I think…” Kid ponders, brows knitting together. He opted for light tan slacks today and a light blue polo Liz insisted made him look ‘less like Nosferatu’. “This way?” he announces with a tone that doesn’t reassure Liz and follows Patty as she goes bouncing off. Her sister shouts for her to follow and she shakes her head, trailing after them.

The tour goes great, but settling down in the mid-afternoon shade makes her remember how nice it was to not be sweating her ass off every second. She relaxes back on the manicured grass and watches students handing out flyers. Patty wanders off to throw her trash away and hopefully mingle a bit. Liz can’t help the pride in her chest that blooms. Her little sister going to college.

A little bump against her knee makes her look over at Kid, who eyes her with curiosity. Her heart picks up a few beats. 

“You could take classes too, you know.”

Liz almost laughs. She’s never been the greatest student. College was never in her cards. Kid’s face stays sober and he waits for her to stop laughing.

“I’m serious.”

Liz shrugs, shaking her head a bit. 

“I don’t think this is for me. I like...helping you with the academy,” she sighs dismissively. Her eyes gravitate towards a large banner on one of the buildings that reads in big bubble letters ‘WELCOME STUDENTS’.

She looks over at him, eyes soft. He nods and relents his gaze. She leans back on her hands and sighs, closing her eyes to soak in the sun. Her heart feels like it’s about to burst from her chest. He’s so close to her. She wonders if his lips are soft.

“I just want you to be happy.”.

“I am.”

And she is.

~

The rain pours against the window panes in a staccato beat. Liz balances a bottle of nail polish precariously in between two of the couch cushions, legs folded up against her chest. She flaps her hand towards her red, wet toe nails and eyes Kid, surrounded by stacks of DVD cases. His brow is furrowed in concentration, bottom lip stuck out a little.

The rain had started around three in the morning and had actually woken her up. She wasn’t used to the rain anymore, especially the low, rumbling thunder that accompanied its arrival. Warm and safe, tucked in her bed it lulled her back to sleep, feeling the bed shift in protest of Patty curling up into bed with her. Even at eighteen, her younger sister still hated storms. 

But in the morning, Patty had dug out her bumblebee umbrella and slipped her dirty converse on to run out to her car to drive into the city for her class, leaving Liz and Kid with nothing but an empty house and the storm still battering at their windows. 

Kid had delighted in his free time. Death City didn’t have a very good drain system for rainwater, so most of the streets had flooded, and the Academy had been canceled for the day. He had taken the day to organize every little thing he just didn’t have time for anymore. 

Liz caught up on her soap operas and was secretly delighted when Kid began watching them with her, tossing a blanket over the two of them and handing her half of his noon tea he made in their favorite mugs. She read all of her Vogue issues that had been piling up in the wake of having to help Kid with the start of the new school year, marking the pages that Patty would like.

The blonde rests her chin in the divot of her two knees. She watches him read the spines of the containers, opening to check that the right DVD was in them. Patty had a habit of switching them up so Kid wouldn’t scold her about the plain discs lying around.

He reminds her of an old movie star. Timeless. Forever preserved in black and white, his sharp features accented by his dark inky hair. His sanzu lines are bright, full and she feels a dull pain of healed grief. She wonders if he feels the same when he sees them. Worse, probably. Her fingers ache to run through his hair to fix the lines for him.

“Kid?”

He looks up at her, eyebrows raised. Liz hesitates.

“You want pizza for dinner?”

~

Sometimes she wishes all of these moments were like that.

She’s screaming at the top of her lungs at him, because anger is far easier than the big hole that feels like it’s sucking her chest in on itself. Panic flurries through her veins and she can feel tears stinging her eyes. _Please, please don’t let me do **that** in front of him._

And the entire time he sits on the couch and grinds his teeth, occasionally snapping back at her. But his anger is nothing like hers. It is a quick, brightly burning flare, and when it is done, all that is left is the big black night sky. She sinks down into a chair, defeated. It didn’t make her feel any better and she can’t hold onto it anymore. It makes her too tired. So, she rests her elbows on her knees, buries her face in her hands and cries. Loud, chest-deep sobs that she hates. She has gotten soft in her years. She cares too much now, too openly. 

Her ache is bone deep and she’s not sure it’s even about him anymore. _He will leave. He will leave. Just give him a reason and be done with it._

She doesn’t hear him wordlessly push himself off the couch and kneel in front of her. He leaves her hands alone but wraps her up in his arms. She melts into him. It was almost automatic now. His arms were home, comfort. 

His hand combs through her hair, busying itself with little knots as she calms herself. She slides down to the floor, needing to feel more of him pressed against her. He tucks the top of her head underneath his chin. After a few moments she pulls away from him, face splotchy and red, and furiously wipes her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry,” she breathes shakily. She wishes she could say more. There is a guilt that’s so heavy in her chest that she threatens to spill over again. 

He smiles. He _smiles_. He brushes her hair back from her face. His eyes are so warm and kind, a little sad. 

“It’s okay,” he nods. 

She kisses him for the first time. He has soft lips and he doesn’t lie to her. She will tell him later.

~

They all wait in heavy anticipation. The night air is cool on her skin. The backyard is silent, absent of the laughter that had carried on the wind just five minutes ago. The air smells of gunpowder and burgers, the concrete scorched black from fireworks that they had been lighting themselves. They’re huddled closely together, perched on lawn chairs or sprawled across the wet grass to look up at the sky. In the distance, against a backdrop of the newly set sun she can see the silhouette of Death City. 

She looks over at him, face lit with warm light. She’s gotten used to pretending that she doesn’t know what he tastes like and what his hands feel like in her hair but sometimes she aches to kiss him. To hell with her worry and the others and the academy. He is the man she loves and he looks beautiful in this light. 

The first shriek and boom rumbles in her gut and she turns just in time to watch the firework explode across the wide desert sky in a flurry of sparkling white and red and purple. She hears his breath hitch beside her.

The display is beautiful, a dance of colors spreading across the night sky, outshining the stars. It reminds her of when her and Patty used to sneak up to a roof to watch the show over the East river. 

She feels his hand slip into hers and she can’t help but smile and turn back to him. The fireworks are loud and exploding faster in the sky, spilling over themselves to get a chance in the spotlight. Kid’s skin lights up in purple and blue and gold and his eyes are on her. Her heart beat is quick in her chest, fluttering against her ribcage. She feels like she’s a teenager again. He turns back to watch the rest of the show, giving her hand a small squeeze.

She misses the ending of the show because she’s too busy watching it in the reflection of his eyes.

~

Kid has become a lighter hearted creature over his years. He smiles more, but not many see the sadness and worry that makes it more poignant to Liz. She sees a weight on his shoulders that threatens to bury him sometimes. 

Her phone is shuffling through her music library while she helps him make dinner one night. Humming softly along, stirring the pasta into a large pot, she’s surprised when Kid takes a break from cutting carrots to burst into an enthusiastic verse of the song that he had been previously muttering his breath. She can’t help but laugh, looking over at him in surprise.

He blushes, grins and motions for her to sing along. 

It takes a bit of convincing but she joins in, their two terrible voices drowning out the sound of the singer. Kid pulls a wooden spoon from the counter as an impromptu microphone, grabbing her by the waist and dipping her backward. She laughs, yelling slightly as he catches her and pulls her back up, spinning her around. 

Grabbing both of his hands, they fumble through the lyrics together. Her socks make her slip and slide on the linoleum, making it easier for Kid to swing her around. He croons a love song to her and they show off their knowledge of the verses of Ice Ice Baby. 

They’re both red with laughter by the time the next song ends. The timer dings and she’s disappointed when he ducks down and kisses her cheek, rushing over to save their garlic bread from burning.

Her heart is a frantic, excited little bird trapped in her chest and she wants to hear him sing another love song. 

His shoulders are less tense as he finishes cooking.

~

The sun is warm on her skin and she curls closer to him underneath the blankets. His hand is tracing tiny patterns over her back but his eyes are still closed. She watches him for a little while, watching his dark eyelashes against his pale cheekbones. She can hear Patty downstairs, shuffling around and clinking dishes together probably making herself cereal.

“I love you,” she tells him, softly. Liz is terrified but not telling him, she has finally decided, seems worse. She will not waste another second. 

His eyes open slowly. 

He smiles, like he has heard it a thousand times before. 

“I love you too.”

It is a ‘Good morning.’ and an ‘I hope you have a good day.’ and an ‘I love waking up with you.’ and a resounding ‘I am here. Always.’

He kisses her softly. 

She’s happy and his lips are soft and she loves him.


End file.
